Sunday, 18 April 2010

In Lansdown Cemetery, a giant book made from black granite provides an impressive and unusual memorial for Henry Adkins (1853-1930) and his wife Marie Louise (Poulin). She was born in Bordeaux and he in Birmingham.

Today, I visited an extraordinary cemetery on the north side of Bath. I passed it dozens of times in the past without realising it was there. A chance search on Bing [the newest search engine] for Somerset Victorian Cemeteries provided details of the Lansdown Cemetery.

According to the Beckford Tower Trust who have published a handy illustrated TombTrail, the wealthy collector, author and builder of Towers, William Beckford (1760-1844) created a picturesque landscape garden behind his house that climbed Lansdown, culminating at Beckford's Tower. After his death, his daughter gave the tower and gardens to the parish of Walcot for use as a cemetery. Since 1848, more than 8,000 burials took place. In 1992, it was closed and only burials in existing family plots are allowed today.

The entrance gateway (pictured below) has two doors either side of the main gateway. One has the powerful inscription 'The Gateway of Death' above it. The other carries the word 'Resurgent'.

Friday, 2 April 2010

Escape to the Silent Cities: Zinc Markers Here's a brand new website with a cemetery connection. It has a very interesting post on zinc markers with photographs of several examples. Click on the link for a quick visit!

Blogs of Note

Laurie Manton is a participant in the Amazon Europe S.à r.l. Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk